WWII Veteran Returns To Luxembourg for Memorial Day 2013

Memorial Day at the US Military Cemetery in Hamm

Luxembourg welcomed back an American soldier 69 years after he helped to liberate Luxembourg at Saturday’s Memorial Day service at the American Military Cemetery.

War veteran Frank Moore was stationed in Hesperange for two months as part of the 83rd infantry division of the 453rd anti-aircraft artillery battalion aged just 21.

“My husband always loved the Luxembourg people,” Frank’s wife, Jeanne Moore, told wort.lu/en, adding: “Because they gave him a sense of a normal life to come. He’s never forgotten it.”

Mr Moore, 90, was housed in Hesperange with a Teri Braun, whose welcome was so warm she even prepared a Thanksgiving dinner for her tenant. Currently living in Portland, Oregon, Mr Moore has already once returned to Luxembourg to give thanks. In his latest trip, which will see him travel to Normandy, he wanted to share his memories with his family as part of a TV documentary.

Mr Moore was one of hundreds of people who gathered at the American Military Cemetery in Hamm on Saturday afternoon for the annual Memorial Day service.

Opening the speeches US Ambassador Robert A Mandell spoke about the 5,076 soldiers who died in World War II who are remembered at the cemetery.

“I wonder what they were thinking. Even though they didn’t have Facebook or cell phones or iPods, I feel sure more of them were just like most of our young men and women today, with the same thoughts, fears, cares and loves of life,” he said.

He went on to thank, on behalf of President Obama, all the people currently serving the US in military operation.

Infrastructure Minister Claude Wiseler added his thanks in a message that remembered those who “fought shadows” 70 years ago. He talked of the legacy of the US involvement in liberating Luxembourg, which resulted in Luxembourg joining the UN and NATO in order to “give back some of what was given to us.”

Memorial Day is an American custom, which was established following the end of the Civil War for people to decorate the graves of the fallen. It has since been expanded to remember people who died in conflict from all wars.